ibpsychrevision - Human Relationships

To what extent do biological, cognitive and sociocultural factors influence human relationships?
Evaluate psychological research (that is, theories and/or studies) relevant to the study of human relationships.

Pro-social behavior benefits others or has positive social consequences (Staub, 1978)
Helping behavior intentionally helps or benefits others in the spirit of making a difference
Altruistic behavior is helping someone else without reward and can even be at some cost to yourself
- However, distinguish between fairness and actual altruism (List; Fehr)

Negative-state relief model (Schaller and Cialdini, 1988) - motivated to reduce distress experienced by watching others in awful situations
- does not explain why some people who experience distress do not act
- cannot predict behavior
Empathy-altruism model (Batson et al., 1981) - we experience either
- personal distress - anxiety or fear which motivates us to help egoistically to relieve our fear or anxiety
- empathetic concern - sympathy or compassion which motivates us to help where the goal is relieving the person's suffering (not your own fear or anxiety)

Whiting (1979) found that nurturing behavior in children (3-11) is higher in Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines compared to US (who scored lowest)
Graves and Graves (1985) - family environment where you are expected to care for younger children increases prosocial behavior
Levine et al. studies
- US population density predicts prosocial behavior (lower = more likely to help)
- Replicated in 23 cities - Rio de janeiro and San Jose were most likely to help (role of collectivist society?)
- Low economically productive countries are more likely to help

Good Samaritan study (Piliavin et al., 1969)
Princeton Good Samaritan study (Darley and Batson, 1973)
Replication of Princeton Good Samaritan study (Keating)
Superordinate vs subordinate football team identities influences helping in emergencies (Levine et al., 2005)
Group size and diffusion of responsibility smoke experiment (Darley and Latane, 1968)
Diffusion of responsibility seizure experiment (Darley and Latane, 1968)
Group size and salient identity (Levine and Crowther, 2008)

Pheromones?
Oxytocin and vasopressin
Face symmetry
Hormone levels (ovulation vs non-ovulation) can affect female attraction to men
Waist-to-hip-ratio affects male attraction to females (Johnson and Tassinary, 2005)

Attraction-similarity model (Morry, 2007) - attracted to people similar to ourselves
- Questionnaire confirmed Morry's hypothesis but only conducted on young Americans (Markey et al., 2007)

Cultural norms - e.g. thinness in Western culture
Proximity determines attraction in dorm rooms (Festinger et al., 1950), elderly homes and college campuses (Nahemow and Lawton, 1975)
- Confirmation of proximity including likelihood of dislike based on proximity and probability of face-to-face contact (Ebbesen et al., 1976)
  - People who choose to participate in interviews are perhaps more likely to gossip and/or have more sociable personalities

Cross-cultural perspectives on infidelity (Druckerman, 2007)
- Japanese do not consider it cheating if you pay for sex
- Russians do not consider it cheating if you have extramarital sex while on vacation at a beach resort
- South Africans consider inebriation a proper excuse for cheating - they are forgiven

MHC genes are too similar
Social exchange theory (Kelley and Thibaut, 1959)
- Based on cost-benefit analysis where cost of relationship must not outweigh the benefits
Equity theory (Walster, 1978)
- Equality is important in maintenance of fidelity
- Individuals who feel deprived or under-benefited are more likely to cheat than individuals who feel fairly treated or over-benefited (Hatfield, 1979)
Fatal attraction theory (Felmlee, 1995)
- Factor that caused initial attraction is also responsible for its ultimate demise
  - A musician that lives freely and day-to-day is initially attractive but long-term his partner may view him as undesirable to settle down with

Human Relationships